Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of lawmakers were renewing their push for a comprehensive deficit reduction deal in hopes of giving congressional leaders political space to make hard compromises.

Rep. Heath Shuler, D-N.C., is seeking signatures on a letter to party leaders that calls for $4 trillion in deficit reduction, derived from new revenue and spending cuts, including to entitlement programs. He held a meeting Friday morning to begin building support.

“Everything is on the table,” Shuler said. “We should be able to send a really strong message to our leaders to let them know to come up with a really large deal and that we’ll have their back.”

Shuler signaled he was seeking to replicate the coalition of 100 bipartisan lawmakers that signed a letter last November urging members of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction to craft a $4 trillion deficit reduction package over a decade. Shuler said 18 lawmakers attended the meeting and that he was just beginning to collect signatures.

“We all want to go big and we all want to do this right the first time,” Shuler said. “The thing we don’t want to do is do something small or kick the can down the road.”

Republican Reps. Steven C. LaTourette of Ohio and Mike Simpson of Idaho, who were involved in last year’s “go big” push, were also spotted leaving the meeting. LaTourette and Shuler are retiring at the end of this Congress.